Review: Royal Rooms at Port Orleans Riverside

For the first pageof this review of Disney’s Port Orleans Riverside Resort, see this.

ROYAL ROOMS AT PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE

The Royal Rooms were introduced to Port Orleans Riverside as part of the refurb that finished in 2012.

As part of this refurb, full beds were replaced with queens across the resort, and the rooms in two buildings in Magnolia Bend, Oak Manor and Parterre Place, were redesigned–and re-priced–as “Royal” Rooms.

I stayed in one right after the refurb in December 2012, and revisited in September 2014, wishing to test three potential issues: are these rooms too girly, too inconvenient, and/or too expensive?

The short answers:

These rooms are not girly, but distinctive more in a heavy, detailed, layered, Victorian “elderly aunt” sense than in a princessy way. They won’t be off-putting to little boys. Little–and mom-sized–princesses will likely love their sumptuous design, unless their design aesthetic tends towards the spare and the simple.

These two buildings have always been inconvenient, particularly distant from bus stops, and they remain so–particularly Parterre Place. Disney’s choosing of them for the Royal Rooms is a way to add value to this base of inconvenience similar to the choice to make the Pirate Rooms at Caribbean Beach out of the least convenient buildings there.

They cost most nights of the year $45-80 more per night than standard Port Orleans Riverside rooms. You have to value the decor, and princes and princesses, for them to be worth the extra cost and inconvenience they bring–or be a huge fan of The Princess & The Frog!

A PHOTO TOUR OF THE ROYAL ROOMS AT PORT ORLEANS RIVERSIDE

Your experience with the Royal Rooms might begin at check in, where in 2012 I was issued a special proclamation of welcome from Princess Tiana, the wonderful heroine of The Princess & The Frog who hosts these rooms. (Because I watch Pawn Stars, I knew enough not to open my proclamation…I’ll saving it, and later I’ll sell it to Chumlee for big bucks someday.)

On my 2014 visit I did not get this at check in (an identical version is inlaid into the table in the room, see above) –I don’t know if it has been discontinued, or I was no longer worthy…

Next you make your way–possibly quite a hike if you are in one of the southeastern rooms in Parterre Place–to your room.

The floor plan is pretty close to the standard for the queen-bedmoderate resorts.

What’s different compared to other moderate rooms is the richness of the furnishings, and all the wonderful prince and especially princessy detailing…and those headboards!

You’ll find two queen beds on one side.

The headboards are lovely even in standard light.

But darken the room, and find on the side of each a button, which launches a very fun “fireworks” show on the headboards…

…actually, as you’ll know if you’ve seen The Princess and the Frog, it’s a firefly show.

The richness of the patterning on the bed furnishings has been simplified since the 2012 opening of these spaces.

Here’s the busier 2012 version.

On the other side of the room, you’ll find a table and two chairs.

You’ll find on this side of the room silhouettes of Disney princes.

More princes.

Here’s a shot that shows this side of the room in total. Note the detailed and layered window curtains. Fewer than half of rooms have the two windows you see here–more common is just one, over the heater/cooler unit. Rooms without the second window will have the mirror and some of the art in different locations.

This is typical of one of the several ways–besides price!–these rooms are “royal.” There are images of princes and princesses, sumptuous Victorian-styled furnishings and fittings in a regal color scheme of (royal!) blue and gold, and various objects that will remind fans of various princesses and their films.

Next on this side of the room is a combined dresser and mini-fridge with a TV on top.

With only three small drawers, this room is a little short on storage–though there is a large clothes rod in the bath, with a shelf above.

The mini-fridge is the standard Disney offering. I have my usual objects in it to help you with its scale. I probably should have bought classier objects for such a royal space!

Next to it is a charming footstool, meant to remind you of the pup in Beauty and the Beast!

The wall by the bath has a ton of princesses…

Between the bed area and the dresser/TV area you’ll find this ornate rug that may remind you of something…

The bath as is typical is divided into two areas. One area has sinks that have a very graceful design, including sparklies that show up better in the photograph below.

The faucets here mimic the magic lamps from Aladdin.

There’s a closet area on the side.

Behind a door you’ll find the rest of the bath–including more gold-colored fixtures! The shower curtain reportedly is reminiscent of the Little Mermaid–not so obvious to me. Personally, I would rather have found Jasmine in the shower…

Something I do get is the allusion to Cinderella in this coat rack!

There’s lots of other wonderful details–see Tiana’s monogram above.

Tiana’s portrait also graces your room.

Royal Rooms make up a quarter of Port Orleans Riverside’s capacity, and are all found in two southeast buildings, Parterre Place and Oak Manor, circled in red on the map excerpt. Neither is particularly close to a bus stop (circled in black), the main pool (in blue) or the dining area (white).

Oak Manor is to be preferred because it is pretty much universally closer to where you might want to go than Parterre Place, and also has easier choices of bridges (yellow).

Disney’s online check in form for Royal Rooms won’t let you select buildings or even “near transportation,” so to request Oak Manor, call.

These rooms are expensive and inconvenient, but wonderful for those looking for a royal, princessy abode!

RELATED STUFF

Just updated our upcoming reservation to include one night here in a Royal Guest Room as a surprise for the kids. Because of your review, I decided that we’re having an “off” day the day we check in and the day we check out so that we can just enjoy the resort and not have to worry about walking to/from the bus stops. It seems as though there is plenty to do here with the fishing and Surrey Bikes, pools, etc…so I think we’ll just kick back and relax and enjoy. If we get antsy, we’ll take the boat to Disney Springs. 🙂

Looks like we’ll be returning to POR next year, and I could use some advice. We stayed there our first three visits, and on the first trip we were in a manor, but the next two we wound up in Alligator Bayou, even though I’d called to request a manor. Mind you, I enjoyed AB a lot, but I’d REALLY like to score a manor room next time, and I’m willing to pay extra to do it. Can’t get the Royal Room because my son would lose his princess-averse mind; however, I see that there are options for a Preferred Room and a River View. Would either of those improve my chances for a manor?

Jennifer, the preferred rooms are all in AB, and some AB rooms have a river view…There are more non-preferred river view rooms in Magnolia Bend, tho, so your odds will be higher if you book non preferred, and River View.

We thoroughly enjoyed everything about this resort. We were able to visit the French Quarter side as well and took it all in. Was really a relaxing way to end our WDW trip. The look on my princess’s face was worth every extra penny! The headboards were the highlight for my son and he was won over by the pools! The only negative was that the bathrooms were a tad bit smaller than I would have liked…but being that we usually stay in a Value, it wasn’t too much of an issue. We also were not given a letter upon check-in, so I assume this no longer occurs…though the table inlay delighted my daughter as she read Princess Tiana’s letter to her! 🙂 We enjoyed several of the recreational activities here and it was a great way to get something different out of a WDW trip.

Really tempted by the Royal Rooms (& not my first time to Disney but I’ve enjoyed your site enough that I’d like to pick your brain a lil if I may)…as there is no real scale to the maps how long would you say it takes to walk from the buildings to the bus stop. And do you think the East Depot or the one at Check-in is the closer of the two bus stops?

Jen, the answer to either question depends on which building you are in, and where your room is located within it. The walk to the nearest bus stop can be as far as half a mile

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